Archive for the 'Metro' Category

According to the Baoshan District government Metro Line 7, which is the process of being built, will be extended north to the rural Luodian Town in Baoshan District.

The extension will comprise five stations, on top of the planned 28 underground stations, including one at Luodian Town which will become a rural transport hub .

A train on Line 8 has been equipped with improved passenger support rails, and Metro operators are looking for commuter suggestions to improve the design.

After complaints that the rails on the ceilings of each carriage of small trains on Line 8 offered little help in rush-hour crowds, operators changed the design of the rails.
Source: English East Day

Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of Beijing’s municipal committee of communications promises that all of the people living within Beijing’s Fourth Ring Road and that is a large slab of the population — will never be more than about one km from a subway station once a new citywide mass-transit rail network is completed in 2015.

By that time, 8 million people will use the subway every day; at the moment the figure is 2.9 million.

The forecast is that by by 2015, about 45% of all journeys made in the capital, including those by bus, will be on public transport. That is compared to 34.5% at present.

Ten new subway lines are currently under construction although most of them will not be completed until after the 2008 Olympics.

Two — Line 10 (which includes the branch going through main Olympic venues) and the airport rail line — will be opened ahead of the Games.

By next year, the total length of the city’s subways will be 200 km.

This year, the price of a standard bus ticket was reduced to RMB0.4 (5 cents) for public traffic card holders and a subway ticket to RMB2, making Beijing one of the cheapest places in the country for public transport.

Liu Xiaoming said, ‘The investments and efforts have stopped Beijing’s traffic situation from deteriorating, and in some areas have actually seen improvement.’ Much improvement is still needed to make the traffic relatively civilized.
Source: People’s Daily Online

Line 5 has opened to the public, linking Beijing’s largest low-cost housing area in the north (Tiantongyuan precinct) to suburban areas in the south (Songjiazhuang precinct). It has, indeed, changed peoples’ lives, and for the better.

The Economic Observer has a story of Wang and An Jing which suggests their marriage was saved by the new line. Not only that but the story mirror tens of thousands of others in Beijing. Read the full story by clicking on Source below.

The city has grown so large that kin living at different ends of the city hardly find time to meet up. Now, the network of subway lines offers some hope for better communication.

Subway fares at a flat rate of RMB2 appear to have propped up the ‘Happiness Index’ of the city residents although, on the downside, prices of properties along the subway lines have skyrocketed.

I Love My Home — the correct an splendid name — real estate agency organized large scale viewing tours. Based on the agency’s records, second hand properties along Line 5 in Fangzhuang, Liujiayao, Hepingli and Lishuiqiao made up 28% of its total sales.
Source: Economic Observer Online

Beijing’s new Number 5 subway line is now being tested. The plan is that it will open in September. It will be Beijing’s first north-south underground line and is equipped with new technology. It will, of course, be open in plenty of time for the Olympics and can be regarded as part of Beijing’s Olympic legacy.

There are LCD screens on the platforms and in the trains with schedule information — and they can broadcast live TV signals. Which some passengers may regard a blessing. Others the reverse. Thus during next year’s games, passengers on the way to an event won’t miss any of the action while they’re traveling although it will be television not live. And, yes, there is a difference.

This is Beijing’s first subway line equipped with an integrated information system. Indeed, as far as can be ascertained this is probably a first in the world.

Passengers can check out the latest train schedule and city information.

All platforms have glass walls to prevent passengers’ falling onto the railway. The carriage floor is made of non-slip materials. And, sad to report, mobile phone signals can be picked up on every inch of the line.
Source: China Daily

A story from the Beijing Morning Post says that China will be introducing its first no-car day on the September 22 in 108 cities. But the car ban will not cover all of the cities — which include Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin — but rather selected zones.

Typically there will be three of four zones where all private cars will be banned with the exception of police cars, ambulances, fire department vehicles and other special vehicles. And it is possible that special passes may be available for those who can prove that for them cars are an essential. As in the case of a handicapped person.

No-car day is just one part of a promotional campaign which is trying to get people to use public transport. Extra special fast bus lanes will be added in some of Beijing’s districts and the city is also opening its new subway line, 5 Train.

According to the Ministry of Construction, China’s urban population is now 577 million and the country has 53 million automobiles on its roads, with the number of private cars growing by 20% every year. Energy consumption for the transportation sector now accounts for a fifth of the country’s total energy use. Only 20% of Chinese city residents use public transport.

The no-car day, according to the Ministry, will save the country 22 million liters of petrol (8.7 million gallons) and reduce pollution emissions by 3,000 tons, plus prevent hundreds of road fatalities. The public transport usage in cities is expected to rise to as high as 50%.

Qiu Baoxing, vice-minister of construction, said at a meeting with representatives from the 108 cities, ‘The once kingdom of bicycle is losing its appeal. Fast urbanization, the concentration of people in certain areas, and an increase in the number of cars has seen bicycles lanes being reduced or completely eliminated. The event is not only a move to cut vehicle emissions but also a test of the capabilities of local governments to encourage more people to participate in such programs.’

How do the people feel about this?

An online survey jointly launched by China Youth Daily and Internet portal sina.com showed that among 2,968 respondents, 78.2% of those without a private car call for a permanent traffic ban, while 61.9% of private car owners object to it.

Deng Rong, an accountant of Beijing Double-Crane Pharmaceutical Company, also a private car-owner, said ‘A permanent traffic ban would be unfair since I have bought my car, how can you cut down half of my driving time?’
Source: China.org.cn and China Digital Times and CRI English.

At Beijing’s massive new airport terminal visitors to the Olympics will use an automated train system. The two-kilometer ‘people-mover’ line will be the first fully automated train system in China, operating without any human drivers.

The trains are emblazoned with the Olympic symbol and the ‘CAH’ logo of Capital Airports Holding, the state agency that ordered the train system.

In fact, they are produced by the Canadian company Bombardier but that company keep a low profile.

Bombardier’s president of China operations, Jianwei Zhang, thinks this low-key approach has been crucial to Bombardier’s success in China.

Bombardier defers to its government customers, deals mainly with state agencies, stays behind the scenes and remains nearly unknown to ordinary Chinese consumers.

Jianwei Zhang said, ‘Bombardier keeps a very low profile in China. We never advertise. We don’t like to talk too much. I prefer action, not talk. It’s the Chinese way: modest and low profile.’

In May, the company got its second big Chinese order for its automated people-mover technology, winning a $71-million contract for a four-kilometre underground line in a district of Guangzhou.

Bombardier has also signed three other transportation contracts in China this year, and it is negotiating two others. It is discussing the possible sale of its people-mover technology to airports in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing. And it is in a strong position to win a second phase contract to expand the Beijing people-mover to the airport’s older terminals.

Bombardier also won a $68-million contract to provide 40 railway cars for the new rapid transit link between the Beijing airport and the city subway line. It will deliver its first set of train cars for the transit link in mid-September.

Bombardier has also signed a memorandum of understanding with China Aviation Industry for a $500-million deal for investment in airplane development projects.
Source: Globe and Mail

It was done specifically for the Olympics but the four-day trial in which more than one million cars were banned from Beijing’s roads has shown a way ahead.

He Bin, a lawyer living on the outskirts of Beijing, said, ‘I would like to leave my car in the garage forever if the traffic is as smooth as it was during those four days. It usually takes an hour and 20 minutes to drive to my office, but the bus trip saved me half an hour. I listened to music and read newspapers on the bus.’

Most Internet users hailed the temporary ban as a success. ‘The ban has taken Beijing back to the 1980s when there were no traffic jams. I hope the ban will never be lifted’ wrote one netizen at an online forum of Sina.com.

About 1.3 million cars were removed from the city roads each day on August 17-20 to test the effect on air quality for the Olympic Games.

Drivers with even-numbered license plates, excluding taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, were banned Friday and Sunday. Odd-numbered cars were banned on Saturday and Monday.

The air pollution index was between 93 and 95, down from 116. That is still an unacceptably high figure but it is heading in the right direction.

However, very few people voluntarily give up driving their cars. This problem has been studied all over the world and there is evidence that even in bad traffic drivers see their cars as a protective cocoon from the pressures of office, home and other people. It is their space for an hour or so.

And car drivers, by and large, fight against abandoning their private space.

An editorial in the Beijing News said the temporary traffic ban could solve Beijing’s traffic woes during a specific time period, but there remains conflicts of interests if the ban is put into force permanently.

The editorial argued that car owners already pay several kinds of fares to drive their cars so if their rights have to be sacrificed for Beijing’s blue sky, they deserve compensation from the government.

An alternative argument could be that if they do not need cars they can sell them and save the money for themselves. Owning and running a car is not a cheap hobby.

Xie Shaodong, deputy head of the Environmental Sciences and Engineering College of Peking University, believes Beijing cannot cure its pollution troubles by simply restricting cars.

Xie Shaodong said, ‘In the long run, building a fast and accessible transportation network will be a more effective way to improving Beijing’s air quality.’

Which is a sort of self-fulfilling argument. There is a fast and accessible transportation network being built and the problem is to get drivers out of their cars and on to public transportation.

Beijing will build eight new subways ahead of 2012, bringing the number of subway lines to 14, totaling 407 kilometers.
Bicycles were more in evidence on the streets over the four days of the test and a Beijing company plans to make 50,000 bikes available for rent at 230 outlets around the city before the Olympics.

Source: China Daily

2010 World Expo will leave Shanghai endowed with a better, faster, less traffic jam prone transport system. According to a plan released by the Shanghai municipal government RMB110 billion ($14.47 billion) will be invested in the next three years to expand and upgrade the public transport system.

This will include building rail lines and bus transfer hubs, according to an action plan issued to prioritize public transit in the city.

According to the plan, Shanghai will have more than 400 kilometers of rails in operation by 2010, accounting for 30% of the total public transport capacity.

The city will put more buses on the road by establishing more bus lines that run through the city’s downtown, suburbia and townships in the peripheral area of the city.

It will also set up another 3,500 parking spaces for the buses, and install digital signboards at bus stops to tell commuters where the bus will be going and when.

Special lanes will be set up for the 2010 World Expo, which will be run from May 1 to Oct. 31, 2010 in Shanghai.
Source: People’s Daily Online

The China International Urban Rail Transport Expo had on display a subway car destined for the Shanghai’s Metro Line 6 which should be launched at the end of this year.

This is China’s first domestically made Metro car. The manufacturer, Shanghai Rail Traffic Equipment Co, said 85% of the train’s parts are made in China.

The first such six-car train will be put into use on Metro Line 9 around the end of the year and later will be on Metro Line 6.
Source: Shanghai Daily

Beijing’s new No. 5 subway line which will run through the center of the city is set to start carrying passengers in September. Ding Shukui, deputy manager of the city’s rail traffic company, said construction of the subway tunnel has been completed and workers are busy building the last station. He said, ‘Trial operations begin on June 30.’

The line is 27.6-km long and runs north-to-south line runs through the eastern part of the downtown area. It starts at Taipingzhuang, north of the north fourth ring road, travels underground through the center of the city to Songjiazhuang near the south fourth ring road. It has 22 stops along the way.

It meets with Line 1, the city’s east-west subway, at Dong Dan, one stop east of Wangfujing. It links the loop line at Yong He Gong in the north and Chong Wen Men in the south. Passengers on line 5 can also connect to line 13, north Beijing’s light rail line, at Li Shui Qiao.Construction began in late 2002, and cost RMB12 billion( $1.55 billion).

Live broadcasts will be provided on televisions installed on each subway car and (many would see this as a negative point) passengers will never lose a connection on their mobile phones.
This subway has slightly wider and taller cars than current subways in Beijing and are more comfortable. They are designed to reach speeds of 80 km per hour.

Beijing currently has 95 km of mass transit rail lines in operation, of which 54.15 kilometers run underground. Another 100 km of mass transit lines, consisting of eight different routes, will begin operation before 2008.

By 2008, there will be nine lines totaling 200 km, and by 2020 the city government plans to have 19 subway lines in operation, totaling 561.5 kilometers, which could make it the largest underground rail system in the world.
Source: China View